Every year, from my strategic position up here overlooking the Uawa river valley, I have watched the cops putting all available resources into one big assault on the cannabis-growing nurseries they’ve been raiding for years.
That is usually followed by a widely publicised ritual of burning the harvest in public, supposedly to ensure maintained confidence in the police’s ability to keep a lid on this criminal activity. After all that effort over 24hrs, things get back to normal as the police turn their attention back to higher priority problems.
It is a pity that this poison can cause so much havoc in our society yet remains virtually untouched because we have given up on it. What a disaster!
Soon after I arrived on the Coast in 1980, the local MP at the time, Allan Wallbank, gave a well-received address to the Tolaga Bay Lions club in which he made the bold statement that “Dope is the biggest industry on the Coast bar none”! I have no reason to doubt that it has maintained its pre-eminent position as this region’s top income earner in the years since, and may well have put light years distance between itself and the ones fighting over second place.
To add insult to injury, apart from not paying any tax on their huge earnings, the perpetrators of this evil continue to roam the streets of our communities, undeterred by any threat of prosecution as they ply their trade of destroying the lives of our youngest and brightest.
I know this is an accurate description because I have had the misfortune of offering employment to some of these lost souls who are generally beyond redemption.
My experiences are common place amongst employers in the main contributing sectors of our economy, particularly forestry, that struggle to fill high-paid vacancies for positions that are key to any expansion of those industries.
Even more worrying is the fact that Government appears to be interested in crafting laws that will allow the growing of dope for personal use and medicinal purposes only.
We should discourage those local MPs who think the idea has merit from supporting any such move; maybe even make it an election issue.
There is a case to be made for its use as an addition to painkiller drugs currently available under strict supervision in the health services, but the benefits for those under that system have to be weighed against the damage done to so many more if “wakky bakky” is available in an unrestricted form.
Most documented evidence identifies dope as the entry point for addiction to more potent drugs, and that it has all the properties necessary on its own to damage brain cells to a point where the patient ceases to function normally.
Thank goodness our Mayor has had the courage to unequivocally state his position on this important issue without fear of the consequences for himself politically.
Well done Your Worship!
